04 September 1992

Show

Name

• John Peel Show

Station

• BBC Radio One

YYYY-MM-DD

• 1992-09-04

Comments

• Files 1 and 2 are a C90's worth of a three-hour show, beginning around 12.33 a.m. and running to the end, and featuring detailed commentary on JP's visit to the Reading Festival the previous weekend.
• Files c and e are from the SL Tapes and should hopefully complete the show in time.
• A couple of mentions of 'the Festive Fifty that never was', which finally saw the light of day as the Phantom Fifty in 1993. Returning from Reading, Peel finds a large amount of mail waiting for him: "more people than actually sent in entries for the festive 50 last Christmas have written in to volunteer to compile what would have been the festive 50 if I hadn't started sulking and not done it. Which is an extraordinary state of affairs."
• One of the listeners volunteering their services also asks why there isn't a box set of all the Fall Peel sessions. JP: "Something that I've been pressing for for a long time because it's something that I wanted as a birthday present for myself, or a Christmas present or any kind of a present really... I think Mark E Smith changed his mind about it a few months ago so it's all gone into abeyance but perhaps one of these days we'll dare to raise the subject again."

Sessions

• Loveblobs, one and only session. Recorded 1992-08-16. No known commercial release.'Blood Control' and 'Soul Station' not included in this recording.
• Stereolab, #2 (repeat). Recorded 1992-06-28 and first broadcast 11 July 1992. Available on ABC Music - Radio 1 Sessions (Strange Fruit). 'Peng' and 'Jon Cage Bubble Gum' not included in this recording.

Tracklisting

• File a starts.

JP: "And then after them came the Farm, who'd been added to the bill at the last moment because somebody else, Disposable Heroes I think, somebody had dropped out. I like the Farm and I've known Peter Hooton for years - oh sorry, that's me banging the microphone, waving my arms around in my excitement - known him for years and I like him a lot and I like the other members of the band as well, so I was saddened when people started chucking mud at them, which I suppose they probably did because they'd been, like, a 'chart group' as people perceive it. They saw it as being a kind of 2-2 away draw which is what Liverpool had had the same afternoon against Leeds of course. Nearly beat them, nearly got beaten in a curious way, the last three minutes, absolute chaos. I think the Farm pulled it back from being a goal or two down and it was a 2-2 away draw was how they assessed it at the end and a lot of mud on the stage which I didn't like to see I must admit. I felt sorry for them. Manic Street Preachers, not my cup of tea really again. EMF went down very well, as did Ride. I didn't see much of Ride, I'm afraid I was backstage at that stage, having had a fairly exhausting day. Cos you do actually, on the stage for 12 hours rushing backwards and forwards and trying to sort things out and not get in the way (laughs) and be helpful and cooperative and so forth. I was having a few exotic beers backstage. Canadian this year actually, rather than Mexican I'm afraid. Of course on Saturday night, top of the bill the only black music act really for the whole weekend as far as I can think of. There should be more of that, no question about it. And they were quite astonishingly good. Of course they used the famous twelve-letter word on... if they were being paid by their use of that particular word, and the abbreviated versions thereof, they'd be multi-millionaires. Perhaps they are multi-millionaires by now. Eventually, obviously it lost what impact it ever had because of its sheer repetition of it, but it was quite extraordinary the whole performance. Very, very powerful and I was very pleased to have seen them again. This is an early tune of theirs."

• Public Enemy: Welcome To The Terrordome
• Stereolab: Peng (session)
• Milkfloat: Colourblind (LP - Guilt Edged Steel) Clawfist

JP: "This is from the Fabions. As the search continues for that missing Little Richard cover, I've now reached the Fs."

• Fabions: 'V Rocket' (7") (Bullet)

File 1 starts.

• Holographic: 'Purs Floxy (12 inch-1st)' (80 Aum)
• File a ends.
• Unrest: 'Isabel Bishop (7 inch)' (Teenbeat)
• (JP: 'On the Saturday at Reading, I was unable to get along to the tent at all because the whole of the backstage area was so jammed with people pretending to be NME and Melody Maker journalists that you couldn't really fight your way through them. But our Thomas, even before he got to Reading, in fact for weeks before, was saying that the thing he was looking forward to most was Shonen Knife. Where he got this from I simply don't know at all, but this is what he was after, and after he had seen them, he pronounced himself well-satisfied with them. So, Tom, if you're listening, this is a record by Shonen Knife, and you ought to be asleep by now.')
• Shonen Knife: 'Bear Up Bison (CD single-Space Christmas)' (Seminal Twang)
• (JP: 'On Saturday night/Sunday morning in Reading, and indeed in much of the rest of the country as well, of course, there was a terrific storm, and even in our luxury hotel it was a bit alarming: we thought the roof was going to come off that. Obviously, a lot of the people who were on the campsite must have had a thoroughly loathsome night. I lay awake, feeling a great deal of sympathy with them, I want you to know that. The following morning, the music was started with the Melvins, who introduced themsleves with a particularly long and lugubrious Miles Davis track, and were OK once they got going.')
• Melvins: 'Isabella / Porg (12 inch EP-King Buzzo)' (Tupelo)
• Equator Sound Band: 'Pole Musa'
• Loveblobs: 'Peanuts' (Peel Session)
• (JP: 'Let's go back to Reading. The Melvins were the last band I discussed with you. Then came Screaming Trees, another band that, I used to like their stuff two or three years ago, but the present line-up didn't really excite me a great deal, then came Pavement, who were for me actually, it's alaways stupid to say that "they were the best of the entire weekend", but I'm going to say it anyway. I enjoyed them more than anybody else, although the audience response was sort of, muted, I thought. Polite. But I hope to see them again further up the bill, or I just hope to see them again. After Pavement, it was Bjorn Again, the Abba copyists of course, as you may imagine, and once you've got the joke, I think it's all over, to be honest. They did it perfectly competently but the original Abba obviously rather better. After Bjorn Again, it was the Beastie Boys. I think, after we'd seen Public Enemy the night before, the Beastie Boys looked rather thin, frankly. L7 came next, and again they're one of those...I wasn't much impressed by them. They seemed to be demonstrating, as much as anything else, that girls can be as daft as boys. And Teenage Fanclub followed, they went down pretty well. I didn't see much of their set, but our son Thomas said they were pretty good again. Then came Mudhoney, and I suppose because of the name as much as anything else, people decided to pelt them with mud. Although they denied that it affected their set, it quite clearly had done to a degree. That was a pity because I like Mudhoney, and I like the kind of irony that they bring to their music as well, and was looking forward to the kind of between song announcements, but they were muted, to say the least, as a result of the hail of mud. I was going to play you a track from a cassette of the new LP that Mark Arm gave to me...came up to me...gave it to me! I did those awful things that you do when you meet famous people, standing there saying incredibly stupid things. And even as you say them, you can't believe that you're saying them. But unfortunately, I've left the cassette in my car. That's the level of competence that I bring to tonight's programme, but we'll have sorted it out in time for tomorrow night's programme.')
• Huggy Bear: 'Snail Messenger Loss (7 inch-Rubbing The Impossible To Burst)' (Wiiija)
• Powerdance / Ragga Head: 'Power Over The Stars (EP-The Two Play E.P.)' (Infrasonic)
• (1 a.m. news)
• Gospel Fish: 'Dem A No Friend' (Sinbad)
• Stereolab: 'Revox' (Peel Session)
• Freddie King: 'Onion Rings' (Federal)
• N-Trance: 'Set You Free (12 inch)' (PWL International)
• Frances Gumm: 'Mercy (7 inch)' (Sweet Portable Junket)
• (JP: 'Briefly back to the Reading Festival. As you know, second from top of the bill on Sunday night, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, and I have to admit that I didn't much care for the last Nick Cave LP, because it did seem to me, and people are doubtless going to write in and complain about this as well, as though some computer had analysed Nick Cave's previous lyrics, and then written some new songs on his behalf and he'd recorded them and put them on an LP. There seemed to me to be an element of that involved. Of course, top of the bill were Nirvana. I managed to get my son Thomas and my daughter Alexandra on to the stage with her mates, so that they were sort of, they could see everything that was going on on the stage, and then when the band went off, to kind of regroup or do anything at all, they had to come and stand by where they were sitting. Obviously, they were very pleased to be in that position. Afterwards, I was hoping they were going to say, "Kurt turned round and said something really interesting", or passed on some bit of gossip. In fact what they were saying was, "Oh, he winked at me", or, "he trod on my foot", so they were more impressed by the status of the artistes than anything else. The 90-minute set sounded pretty good to me. Kurt didn't look particularly fit, but then at the same time, what had been written about him in the papers and the tabloids and things didn't seem to be evidence of it anyway.')
• Nirvana: 'Been A Son (EP-Blew)' (Tupelo)
• (JP: 'One of their best songs, I think.')
• File e begins
• Dump: 'Intro/Nothing Left (7 inch)' (18 Wheeler)
• Fun Da Mental: 'Azaan - The Calling (12 inch)' (Nation)
• Kentucky Colonels: 'Kicking Mule (CD-Son Of Round A Banjo)'
• Pavement: 'Home (10 inch EP-Perfect Sound Forever)' (Drag City)
• (JP: 'Here's a most perceptive card from B. Brown, who writes to me from Bradford, and it says, "Dear John, I'd be honoured to count up last year's aborted Festive Fifty entries. I think you'll probably get more offers than entries you got last year." Well, that turns out to be exactly right, actually! I'm still opening them here, a considerable mound of them building up in front of me.')
• Skyflyer: 'Where Are The Limits? (12 inch-Droid EP)' (Sapho)
• (JP: 'Also in tomorrow night's programme, I promise I won't talk as much as I have done in tonight's programme. Why this has happened, I'm not quite sure. I do feel really quite light-headed. Perhaps it was something in the tea. Anyway, tomorrow night will be much more sombre, and a more musical programme. Not so much chat, as I say.')
• Loveblobs: 'Two Down' (Peel Session)
• (JP: 'For weeks, sometimes months after Reading Festivals, I get letters from people saying they had stuff stolen out of their tents, a lot of rather sad letters from people. This year it seems to have been as bad as ever, no worse than any other time. This is a record for all of those people who had stuff nicked.')
• Enticers: 'Thief (7 inch)' (Cotillion)
• Stereolab: 'Laissez Faire' (Peel Session)
• (JP: 'I'm going to go off and have that long overdue nervous breakdown, I think, now, but before I do, I'll play you the record which seemed to get people dancing most at this year's Reading Festival. I played it immediately after the Abba copyists had been on, so perhaps it's not entirely unconnected. It's always nice when you put records on and see people jumping about in the mud, and this was that record.')
• Chicory Tip: 'Son Of My Father (7 inch)' (CBS)
• (JP: 'Never thought I'd play that on the radio.')
• (2 a.m. news)

File

Name

• File c: 1992-09-04 Peel Show L092.mp3
• File e: 1992-09-04 Peel Show L.mp3
• Files 1 & 2: Peel Show 1992-09-04 pts 1 & 2

Length

• File c - 00:24:52
• File e -
• File 1 - 00:41:07
• File 2 - 00:46:27

Other

• File c created from L092 of SL Tapes, digitised by Dr_Mango
• File e created from L of SL Tapes, digitised by Weatherman22

• File 2 and 3 created from CB054 of 500 Box.

Available

• Mooo
• Part 1, Part 2

Footnotes